Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Green is Mean

I don't really have any kind of formal information about this band at all.

What I do now is that they were a screamo/emotive post-hardcore band from the Frederick, MD area around the turn of the century. A friend of mine's old brother was friends with the group and gave him their music, and he in turn gave it to me.

The music is reminiscent of bands like Funeral Diner, in that it varies between loud, heavy parts with unrestrained, screamed vocals provided by multiple vocalists, that still retain a distinct melody followed by more mellow interludes featuring clean guitar tones; there are also parts which feature the shouted vocals over clean guitar parts. However, the band has a very original sound, with prominent, fuzzy bass lines and melodic guitar lines that often dissolve in almost punctuated riffs while the rhythm carries the songs along without making them sound spastic at all. The songs are technical without being too complex or show-offy.

I really like these guys, and I wish I knew a little more about them. I do know that some of the members now play in some bands from Baltimore which I somehow stumbled upon, but I can't remember their names and can't remember how I found them.

I hope that you don't mind my leaving a comment here after all these years. I randomly searched the name of my old friends' band and stumbled on your post.

As a schoolmate and friend of both the bassist John Powell and drummer Chris Perera, I attended the vast majority of their shows in Frederick and a few in PA and Baltimore. They actually began as two separate bands: the Poppy Cocks (a kind of Crass-like punk band) and Green is Mean (meant to be a mix of emo, surf-rock, and Sonic Youth experimentation). Since both bands lacked a full line up and shared common members, they came together to form Green is Mean. The number of band members varied over time. During their first show, they actually had five members, though they would perform with only three for the majority of their existence. They eventually picked up a second guitarist that I didn't know as well. Their initial demo was four songs and only had Nate, Chris, and John playing. Their second recording was self-titled and had six or seven tracks. I still have a copy and listen on occasion. I have to listen to it alone though, since friends and roommates have criticized it (and it was a big part of my high school experience).

Green is Mean toured with Fall on Deaf Years and considered the Assistant to be a big influence, as well as the typical emo, hardcore, and emo-core bands of the time (as well as Sonic Youth and Man or Astro Man). I know that Chris and Nate played in band Brown Bear or Black Bear back around 2005-2006 time-frame. Beyond that, I'm not sure.

Chug Life

About Chug Life

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